Aegean Wants Fast Olympic Bid

Greek Airlines Aegean has requested that the European Commission speed up the examination of its application to buy out rival Greek carrier Olympic Air from Marfin Investment Group, the country’s leading airline announced as it presented its third-quarter financial results.

It usually takes between four to six months for the competition arm of the Commission to examine such a demand and issue its verdict, a period of time that Aegean said it can’t afford to wait. In the year to September, as Kathimerini reports, Aegean posted losses of 8.67 million euros, ($11.17 million) against losses of just 2.72 million ($3.5 million) in the first nine months of 2011.

Turnover dropped by 5% year-on-year, amounting to 511.3 million euros ($658.9.) Total passenger traffic went down by 6% from the same period last year, as it did not exceed 4.9 million passengers. There was a 1% decline in traffic on international flights and a considerable 13% fall on domestic flights.

Its promotional offer of cheaper tickets for domestic flights brought an increase in occupancy rates, from 69.2% last year to 73.9% this year to September, Aegean said.